January 13th was quite a big day. I had arranged a tour of one of Bob Murray’s underground coal mines, and we set aside the whole day for the event. Ryan Murray, who is in charge of their Powhatan #6 Mine, met Donovan, Alex, and myself at Bob Evans (our official campaign restaurant) in St. Clairsville and led us to the mine complex. There we met with Kevin Hughes, mine superintendent, who took us to their meeting room where we received basic safety instructions for the tour, familiarizing us with rescue gear and procedures. We then donned coveralls, waterproof steel-toed boots, and a miner’s belt that held our rescue breather and headlamp battery pack.


Miners Dave and Jeff escorted our group, which included Ohio State Representative candidate Bill Behrendt, to the elevator that would take us 30 stories down to the mine.


To say the experience was awesome is an understatement. We caught the longwall shearer at the left end of the 950-foot wall of the coal face and witnessed the way it ate away at the coal deposit like a 32-inch meat slicer that moved back and forth along the wall, depositing the loosened coal on a conveyer that carried it down the tunnel and out of the mine. Huge, powerful ceiling jacks held up the area above the shearer as it worked, and then advanced behind it when the shearer moved further into the coal face. As the jacks advanced, the ceiling behind them would collapse, filling the void created.


Next stop was to the continuous miner, a machine that ate into the coal face head-on, creating the tunnels that we traveled in. Shuttle loaders would take on that machine’s coal and run it to a conveyer head to move it out of the mine. We also saw the machine that drilled holes in the tunnel roof to insert steel rods or cables that compressed the layers of rock above to create a stressed, multi-layer (like plywood), strong ceiling that is very resistant to collapse.


Nearly everything moves on rails in the mine, and as tunnels are abandoned, the rails are taken up to be reused elsewhere. The conveyer system throughout the mine is another marvel of industrial revolution that replaced the coal car and mule system long ago. Even that is being improved with a new type of fire-resistant belting.


We finished our mine tour about 4 p.m., then we were met by Jonathan Murray, who took us to the transloading facility on the Ohio River. There we met Rob Visnik, harbor manager, who explained how the coal was moved from the mine to the end users. Much of the coal is carried on three 67-car trains from the mine head to a dumping pit, where another conveyer takes the coal out to a loader that fills barges on the river. Like the mine, the train’s work 24/7, loading and emptying four trainloads a day.


Each miner’s job is a valuable asset to the community. Murray Energy Corporation is the biggest employer in the county, with nearly 500 people in the mine alone. For every miner, there are eleven (11) ancillary jobs in the community that depend on him. Lose a miner, and you soon lose eleven other jobs in the area.

After this experience I have a greater appreciation for the mining industry and am prepared to be a champion for coal energy in the 6th district. This trip helped me understand that safety is priority number one for both the miners and the management.


The workers in the mine were all in very high spirits and seemed to not only enjoy their jobs but took great pride in them. This was something that Ryan and Kevin told me they try to do, instill a sense of responsibility and ownership in their employees. By doing this they help create an environment for successful working relationships between union workers and non-union management.

Filed under: Energy

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